Loading Photoshop Brushes

The following Adobe Photoshop Tutorials will explain step by step how to load brushes in several versions of photoshop. These tutorials are starting using Photoshop version 5.5 , Version 6 and Photoshop CS.

To make the Photoshop brushes palate appear in photoshop version 5.5, press the F5 key on the keyboard, or go to 'Window' (in the top menu) and select 'Show Brushes' you should now have a floating palate as seen on the left. This contains the default set of Photoshop brushes.

To add your new downloaded Photoshop Brushes to this brushes menu, click the small arrow in the top right hand corner. A small drop down menu will then appear then select 'Load Brushes' as shown, highlighted in the screenshot on the right.

The safest way to manage your brushes is to keep them all in one safe place so they don't get deleted by accident. You can also organize your photoshop brush sets into separate folders e.g. Grunge Brushes, flowers, textures etc. I keep mine in the Photoshop's default brushes folder, on a PC its found in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 5.5\Goodies\Brushes, this may differ depending on where you installed the original Photoshop program. The next step after you have selected the 'Load Brush' is to locate the brushes, browse to find the folder and select all the new brushes you want to load.

This will then load the new photoshop brush set to the brushes menu palate as shown. tip: now all the new photoshop brushes are loaded exit out of Photoshop, this will save the new changes you have made. If Photoshop or your Operating System crashes while Photoshop is running you will have to load all the brushes again, this is the same for photoshop actions, styles etc. To view the new loaded brushes use the scroll bar on the right hand side of the palate, or enlarge the palate window by dragging it down to make it longer. To go back to the default set see the Resetting Photoshop Brushes tutorial for more details.